Wednesday, February 13, 2013

The cover to "Thunderbolts" #7, featuring the
Punisher and Elektra locked in a passionate embrace, suggests not all
the Thunderbolts are unhappy at being forced to work together. The sight
of the team's two most cold-blooded members kissing has left the other
Thunderbolts wondering what exactly is going on.
"The story we're telling is not a love story. It's a perceived love
story. The friction, tension and danger comes out of what certain people
think is happening. It mostly plays out in other characters'
imaginations," Way said. "Everyone who looks at that picture assumes
they understand what's happening. We know who those characters are, so
why would we think they would abruptly switch such fundamental things
about themselves? Even if we think about it and it doesn't make sense
that's what it looks like.
"There are a lot of characters in the book who have the same feeling.
They can't reconcile what they believe is going with what is actually
going on," Way continued. "It's interesting to explore whether or not
the Punisher and Elektra are capable of these types of feelings anymore.
Does Frank fall in love? Or is that part of him just as dead as his
wife and kids? Elektra has used sex and sex appeal as a weapon for so
long. So would she know to use it in any other way? Is it even possible
for her to conceive of such a thing?"
Those interpersonal dynamics unfold against the backdrop of the
Thunderbolts' next mission, which finds them dealing with nefarious
people who have gotten their hands on some of the Marvel Universe's more
fantastic military technology.
"I think a lot of writers from a certain generation fell in love with
the idea of examining how superheroes would solve problems in the real
world. How would they tackle the stuff you see on CNN or CNBC? Why
doesn't the FF open source some of their technology and make the world
better? I love asking questions like that," Way said. "I don't think it
drags superheroes down -- I think it bonds them more fully to us. It
closes the gap a little bit.

"In our first arc, we dealt with a puppet regime on this island
nation that's within striking distance of China and the former Soviet
Union. The next story arc takes place all across the Middle East,
Northern Africa and in parts of present day Russia. The real world
analogy would be the Cold War ordinance that's just sort of sitting
around and then gets gathered up by these suddenly appearing warlords.
Everybody is picking over the bones of a former super power and seeing
if they can do with what Mother Russia failed to deliver on.
"I'm not saying this is about the rebirth of Communism, but they
definitely use some of the tools," Way continued. "Basically we have a
loose nukes style scenario involving a lot of upgraded Crimson Dynamo
armors."
The Crimson Dynamo pilots and their masters won't be the only
villains in the second arc of "Thunderbolts." Readers also get a glimpse
at the mastermind behind some of the horrible revelations the team
uncovers in the initial arc."This is a villain who's going to be around for quite awhile," Way
said. "It's still too early to say much about this character, but this
was all masterminded a long, long time ago. The plan was then broken up
into billions of pieces and now it's being reassembled. It's a process
that began on Kata Jaya and will then be exported."
Artist Phil Noto
brings to life this mysterious mastermind and all the other major
players in this arc. The artist, who is an old friend of Way's, is no
stranger to stories involving super powered strike teams, having just
come off of an acclaimed run on the first volume of "Uncanny X-Force."

"Due to ramping up of the shipping schedule, we brought in another
artist and Phil's a great choice. Obviously the guy has big chops. He
knows exactly what needs to be done with a team of this nature," Way
stated. "At this point I've only seen thumbnails, but when you look at
thumbnails and already get a sense of kinetic action it really frees you
up as a writer. You know your artist has got it -- I don't have to take
a lot of time to make sure Phil understands things.
"In our first conversation we talked about a scene taking place at a
CIA headquarters in Afghanistan, this dilapidated run down hotel. I was
like, 'It's a hotel that you can imagine was totally luxurious back in
1971. Since then it's just been bombed to shit and has leaky pipes and
things like that,'" Way continued. "Phil was like, 'Oh yeah! I love that
stuff!' It's easy for an artist to get excited about a scene involving
super powered characters, but when your artist is getting excited about
drawing some old janky hotel in Kabul you know it's going to be great --
especially when it's an all action scene. It's cool to have a
conversation like that knowing he's going to Google image search to try
and find that hotel."
The CIA continues to be a presence in the Thunderbolts' lives moving
forward. Sometimes they'll be embroiled in operations where they'll
clean up the Agency's messes, but other times the CIA acts in a
beneficial way by exerting their influence to keep a major Marvel super
team from interfering in the T-Bolts' operations.

"It's the actions and inactions of agencies like the CIA that end up
putting the Avengers at bay for now," Way continued. "The Thunderbolts
have definitely popped on the Avengers radar, though. They've just done
so in a way that the Avengers aren't looking to get involved because
this isn't an Avengers problem. From what they're able to see it's
simply not something they should get involved with."

"The Thunderbolts are out there doing what they do in the same world
as the Avengers. Now, especially with some things we're planning out
across Marvel, there exists a bigger level of interaction. Until that
happens, we have to delay a confrontation between the Avengers and the
Thunderbolts. We really want that showdown to be resonant when it
happens," Way said. "We have to introduce a reason for the Avengers
to not get involved in things at this point, which is simple. The
mechanism used is one that happens all the time -- so much of what the
CIA does is inherently compromised and hard to act upon. You can't
really back them up one hundred percent because there's no way you can
agree one hundred percent on what they've done. You can guarantee
they're not telling you the whole truth.
When the Avengers do decide to confront the Thunderbolts, it's at the
worst possible time for the team -- the Red Hulk's super powered force
has their hands full for the foreseeable future, battling the various
cells making up the larger organization of the mysterious mastermind
introduced in the book's second arc.

"There are several villainous characters who have a piece of the
larger puzzle. There's only one guy though who can put them all
together. The villains are basically seeing what they want to see
because they have things they want to do," Way said. "Each of these
underbosses are not aware they're all being fed from a common source.
All they're seeing is an availability of power they can use for their
separate agendas. They don't realize it serves a larger purpose that's
been mapped out by someone else."I wouldn't want anyone to think they should feel sorry for these
guys because what they do definitely justifies a Thunderbolts response,
but they're part of a bigger and ultimately much more destructive type
of plan," Way continued. "Since we have this kind of ultimate team of
bad asses, the worst and most disappointing thing we could have done is
to put them up against people they could just mow down without much
effort."

As the Thunderbolts dispatch these various villains, their war with
the mysterious mastermind above these adversaries escalates, taking them
into new and dangerous territories. "The more force the team exerts --
and the harder they hit -- results in exposing more of a larger and
sinister plan, propelling them towards bigger action. The Thunderbolts
have to get more extreme to deal with it. When you start hitting that
critical mass a whole new spectrum of stories opens up," Way concluded.
"The Thunderbolts are facing a many headed adversary -- what brings them
deeper into this is their unquestioned assertion that evil is evil, and
the solution for evil is a bullet to the head."